Deby Fredericks's Blog, page 55

How Much?

In addition to how long a story should be, another issue that independent authors may struggle with is how much to charge for it. You see so much variation, from price leaders at $.99 to $10 or $15 novels because that’s what the big houses charge.

The question is complicated by formats. Sometimes people think we should charge less for e-books because there is no physical book. This ignores that the effort of writing a book is exactly the same, regardless of format. Especially in nonfiction, where the author has to do the very same research and documentation.

The big puzzle for me (maybe for all of us) is the customer’s perception of value. If you price at $15 for both e-books and printed books, readers may balk because you’re asking too much. If you sell everything at $1.99 or less, readers may assume the books are no good and you’re dumping them cheap. I guess everyone can see the value of a price leader, where you hope readers will purchase further books in a series at the regular price. All us indy writers are looking for the sweet spot, where we can make steady sales that are profitable for us.

For me, I focus on the worth of my product. All my novellas are $5. My paperbacks are around $12, because there is that printed object involved. To me, these are not exorbitant prices. I write a good book, and I charge a fair rate. Although, now that I have four books and a paperback compilation in my Minstrels of Skaythe series, I probably will do a $.99 sale at some point. I just haven’t fully explored the fine print on that.

Now I’m interested in hearing from all of you. What do you charge for your books, and how did you decide on that number?

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

Woman at Work, Part 10

What’s Happening? Well, there’s COVID-19. Obviously. At the start of this, experts were saying it would go on for two years. I thought, “No way.” Now, I’m not so sure. Too many of my fellow Americans lack the maturity to take a simple measure like wearing masks. The school where I work has the highest number of positive tests in our city. One whole classroom is just back from being quarantined, and another will return next week. The specter draws closer.

What I’m Working On. In the month of November, I finished up a couple of short story submissions for two small press anthologies. Those are submitted and I hope the editors like them. With that handled, I’ve started in on the third draft revisions of Prisoners of the Wailing Tower.

What’s Next? If I feel good about Prisoners after this draft, then my next project will be the fifth Minstrels of Skaythe novella. Then, come January, it will be time to start thinking whether we can have our science fiction convention, SpoCon, in person for 2021. Dare I hope?

Fun and Games. Animal Crossing had some fun special activities around Thanksgiving. That’s a game you can play forever, in a very low-key way. I also got to a good place with Fallout 4 and ended the playthrough with my character and her lover sitting by the fire in the cabin she built. I’ll be finishing out the year with my old favorite, Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Normally I am not superstitious, but it really does feel like the year 2020 has been carrying a curse. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for this one to be over!

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

How Long?

Back in the olden times, I was trained with certain expectations around length. A short story could be up to 10,000 words. A novelette was from there to 15,000 words. A novella was from 15,000 to 30,000. Novels were 90,000 and up. And anything between 30,000 and 90,000 was in a “dead zone,” unpublishable because no markets existed for work of that length.

I’ve been following those expectations for *cough* years. But the thing is, that framework was developed around printed publications. The editors knew how many pages each story or article would fill, based on its length. They also paid by the word, and they had a budget for they could spend to acquire work.

Now, though, publications are increasingly electronic rather than printed. It’s slightly odd to see the same expectations still reflected in editorial guidelines. I mean, there are new categories, such as Flash Fiction, which can’t exceed 1,000 words in most cases. And there’s self-publishing that allows authors to produce their own work at whatever length they see fit. There no longer has to be a “dead zone” between 30,000 and 90,000 words.

I guess maybe the media has changed, but the budgets to acquire work are still there?

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

Thanksgiving

It’s hard to believe, but I’m on Thanksgiving break already. Starting tomorrow, I have five days off counting the weekend. I plan to enjoy them!

We are not able to travel, due to me working in a school where kids are attending in person. That actually doesn’t bother me. I usually avoid the Black Friday shopping frenzy, anyway. It just means a less rushed and hopefully more tranquil holiday.

There’s a short story I’ve been working on for a friend’s anthology, and I hope to put the finishing touches on that during the break. I also received a new board game that I got through a Kickstarter. You get to save the forest in Taiwan. Who doesn’t want to save the forest?

I hope you’ll all get some time with family and everyone is well. Happy Thanksgiving!

Reviews Wanted

My latest book, Minstrels of Skaythe, was released two weeks ago. So this is where I reach out to remind you that we writers always need reviews for our books. I’d love to have a few new ones that I can tout on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

If you’ve ordered the paperback, or have purchased the three individual e-books, please do take a moment to set out your thoughts for potential readers.

It really does help.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

Too Political? Part 3

I’ve been sharing how often I hear the complaint that a particular book, movie, comic or game is “too political.” And remember how I pointed out how often writers are told that the only measure of success is the number of copies sold?

I have just three more words for you: Game of Thrones.

A big series full of big books with big sales figures, even before the big TV series. Well, if you’ve read these books, you know that they are extremely political. Every character, every plot event, involves some sort of political intrigue. The whole series is a meditation on politics and power.

Have all the “politics” done anything to alienate fans or drive down sales? Not so much.

In truth, almost any genre series you could name has some sort of political underpinning. To claim that this is a problem is to ignore the roots and history of science fiction and fantasy.

So go ahead and write your story with all the politics you want. Anyone who thinks they know better can just go ahead and write their own book. Maybe they’ll even got a hint about their own politics.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

Too Political? Part 2

By coincidence, just after my last post (“Too Political?”) a friend of mine posted on Facebook that she was still angry about the threats to our democracy embodied in this election. She wanted to write something political. But she wasn’t sure if writers should get into politics. I whispered back to her (as one does on Facebook, by typing *whispers*) “All fiction is political.”

In the comments for “Too Political?” Alden mentioned how world building especially is full of politics. Who has power. How resources are allocated. You can see the author’s underlying assumptions in ways that are sometimes obvious or sometimes more subtle.

In a lot of classic SF, the cast is entirely male. It was just their assumption that only men would crew a starship (or whatever ship it was). There might be grotesque stereotypes of minorities such as Black and Asian people, and the author wouldn’t even see how bigoted they were being.

For authors working today, the world is different. We have to think more about bias and representation. And I think, the change is for the better.

We writers so often get told that making money is the most important part of our art. We have to sell copies to be considered successful. Lots and lots of copies. So then we’re told to only pick the hot, commercial topics. Things that are already selling well. Above all, we must not write anything that might offend a customer.

Never mind that my friend isn’t the only one who’s still upset about the threats to democracy. She might find a ready audience for her political fantasy story. Besides which, her existing trilogy has the main characters living in a matriarchal society. If that isn’t political, tell me what is.

I may have said this before, but the stories we tell are important. They might call for change, where bias still exists. They might show us how to create healthier relationships. If we want the world to keep changing for the better, the first step is for us to share the future we imagine, through our stories.

So I don’t think that writers can ever be too political. Whoever says that is just trying to shut you up.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

Too Political?

I don’t know about you, but I’m extremely relieved that the election is over with. What an ordeal! It seems like the campaigning went on for three years. That is way too long. If I could magically pass one thing into law, it would be to limit the election to one calendar year.

That said, a part of my mind is observing and cataloguing the human behaviors that continue to play out. The hopes and aspirations. The obfuscation and outright lying. The puzzle of why one promising candidate fizzles while the stranger ones thrive. It’s all fodder for a writer’s brain.

In SF fandom, it has become all too common to hear indignant outcries that “this novel/movie/comic book/video game is too political!” Usually they seem to come from white guys who are blind to the privilege they enjoy because of their race and gender.

It makes me laugh to hear them.

SF, Fantasy, and maybe especially Horror, have always been political. Let’s just look at one example: Star Trek, which was the main SF show on TV when I was in high school. Star Trek was created during the Cold War, and while America was in the midst of the Viet Nam War. Yet, the show featured a truly international crew. The all-American Captain Kirk was not just surrounded by European-descended allies, but also by African, Russian, Japanese and completely alien species such as the Vulcan, Spock. Contrast this with another show of the same era, Hogan’s Heroes. There, the “international cast” were mostly European with one token Black.

Don’t you dare try and tell me Star Trek wasn’t political. It was also hopeful and aspirational, suggesting that in the future people would overcome serious divisions to reach the stars. It’s a theme that carried through several sequel series, even when later iterations have tried to be darker and “more realistic.”

Genre writers today should not shy away from being political. It is one of the things that really sets us apart from other genres.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

It’s here…

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Minstrels of Skaythe is a book! No surprise, right? I’ve only been talking about it non-stop for a month. But I’m still excited to give you the purchase link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/173392275X. It would be great if you could share this around with anyone you know who loves high fantasy.

Finally, I have something in the Minstrels of Skaythe series that I can autograph. So if you’d like to get a signed copy, feel free to contact me and I’ll gladly set that up.

Now excuse me while I rush around updating all my web sites and stuff!

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

Woman at Work, Part 9

What’s Happening? As I write this, the American election is undecided. I’m as anxious and stressed as you might expect. But I have continued to work on the setups for the printed collection, Minstrels of Skaythe. Amazon is sending me smaller and smaller nit-picks. I truly hope to have a release announcement within the next few weeks.

What I’m Working On. Despite the massive distraction of the election, I’ve started on a new short story, for a different anthology invitation from a different friend. This year of 2020 has really hurt my publicity options, so I’m trying to make up the lack for submitting more short work.

What’s Next. After the story story, I’ll get back to Prisoners of the Wailing Tower for a third draft revision. I hope to publish that one in May of 2021.

Fun and Games. I continue to enjoy Animal Crossing because I can build things and nobody comes to knock them down. Also Fallout 4, where I build things that sometimes get attacked. Fallout has been fun, but I’m running out of plot threads to pursue there.

After the election, let’s hope we can all relax for a bit! At least, until the madness of Christmas shopping takes hold!

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.